Effects of Carbon Dioxide and Clouds on Temperature

With the observed rise in temperature, many researchers have tried to identify the causes of such climate change to help mitigate its effects. The objective of this study is to determine whether, under the same carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, CO2 with lower cloud coverage would raise the temperature at a greater rate than CO2 with higher cloud coverage. The hypothesis was tested through big data analysis and modeling. The relationships between the temperature and the CO2 emissions, the temperature and the cloud coverage, and the CO2 emissions and the cloud coverage were identified using the Pearson's correlation test. The data analysis concluded that the relationship between the temperature and the CO2 emission is positively proportional with a significant correlation. The relationship between the cloud coverage and the temperature and the relationship between the CO2 emissions and the cloud coverage were determined to be negatively proportional with significant correlations. For modeling, the temperature increased more rapidly as cloud coverage shrank. The results supported the hypothesis that the cloud coverage mitigates warming effects created by CO2 emissions. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.